


James Potter and the Furry Little Problems

by NancyHartigan



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Reality, Gen, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), Marauders Friendship (Harry Potter), Some WolfStar if you squint right, some Jily too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-22 16:54:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22219267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NancyHartigan/pseuds/NancyHartigan
Summary: After Severus Snape had dismissed Lily Evans for the last time, James makes a promise to her that he and the rest of the Marauders are going to leave him alone. Unfortunately for them, Severus asks Sirius about the tunnel under the Whomping Willow and Sirius just can't resist one last go against the Half-Blood Prince.One full moon and a miscalculation later, Remus has done the unthinkable, Sirius refuses to take it seriously, Peter feels stuck in the middle, and James refuses to let their friendship die over a prank that had gone so far sideways that it could easily be interpreted as malicious, even if it means having to work with his greatest enemy to make everything right again. Assuming that said enemy will help to begin with.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 12





	1. Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ryo Hoshi (Hoshi_Ryo)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hoshi_Ryo/gifts).



> Okay, so it's been about a decade since I visited the Wizarding World, but I've recently been working my way through the series again, and Ryo_Hoshi, upon discovering that I was doing a series of vignettes in the oh-so-original MoonStar Raises Harry setting had proposed this prompt and, naturally, the bottom fell out and now it's a full-fledged novella of a Marauder Misadventure. I figured why not share it with the rest of the Potterheads, because we all like to suffer a little, right?

The moon was still high in the sky, and there were a million stars sparkling above their heads. On any other night, Hogsmeade would be beautiful. This, however, was not any other night, and inside the Shrieking Shack, James’ eyes were transfixed on the scene in question, unable to make a sound.

The werewolf that he had called his friend since their first year was huddled in the corner of the threadbare room, heckles raised, splitting his attention between licking his wounds, snarling at anyone that dared come too close to a far-too-pale Sirius, whose eyes had just lost anything akin to focus, and trying to keep Peter and himself on the bed. Severus was not considered a threat apparently, mostly because he was on the other side of the room, visibly shaken and daring not make another move. The trap door was wide open, and it would only take a few steps for anybody to get out of this hellish situation.

Whether the blood on the floor was Remus’s, Sirius’s, or Severus’s didn’t fucking matter. The spatter was damn near everywhere.

James caught his best friend’s gaze. “Stay with us, Padfoot.”

A ghost of a smile crossed over the pureblood’s face, his head lolling to its side to try to hide the gaping wound that looked like it was not done with him. “Still here, Prongs.”  
Severus was still not moving since he managed to curl up as far away as possible from where the werewolf had retreated, but James could hardly care right now. He was mauled, sure, but James saw exactly where Remus’ jaw clamped down. Severus would be fine, even if a little Snivellus for a while.

Sirius, however, Sirius needed to make it through the night. Madame Pomfrey had to have an idea what to do.

It was Peter who decided to ask the question that James had been trying to find an answer for. “So how are we going to explain this one off?”

It was Severus’ turn to speak up. “Are you serious?”

“No, _he’s_ Sirius,” James told him, mostly out of an automatic response of some sort. “And we need to get him to the infirmary, now.”

As if on cue, Remus snarled and snapped his jaw, sending Peter a few inches closer to the wall. James just looked at the wolf in response. “Are you quite through?”

“If we’re all prey here, why is he trying to protect Black?” Severus asked.

James didn’t take his eye off the werewolf. He knew that Severus was assessing the situation just as much as he was. “For some reason, he always seems to recognize Sirius.”

Sirius gave a thumbs up the best that he could. “Perks of being the top bunk I think.”

“Stop talking and save your strength,” James told him. “Can you move yourself?”

“Not very far.”

“Try,” James pressed. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“No,” Severus told him. “Stay where you are, do NOT move more than you have to. All that moving is going to do is make you bleed more.”

Seemingly satisfied with cleaning his own wounds, Remus left his circle to move to Sirius, licking at his neck. Without a trace of fear, Sirius lifted his hand to gently pat at the wolf’s neck. “I’m okay, Moony, it’s alright.”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Peter concluded. “What’s next?”

“I’m not leaving him here,” James replied. “Get to the trap door and get out of here.”

Severus didn’t need to be told twice, moving slowly and crouched low, trying to make himself as small as possible. At first, it appeared as if Remus was too fixated on trying to fix Sirius to notice the movement, but the beast turned its head and quickly moved between the Slytherin and the Gryffindor, almost as if he was shaking off the goring that had occurred minutes before. Bloodied teeth were borne, his body ready to spring, and James figured that this was the best chance he had to bolt across the room to grab Sirius.

Severus managed to roll out of the way from the leap, diving headfirst through the trap door by time Sirius was gotten to his feet, one arm thrown over James’ shoulders.

Peter was watching the werewolf trying to bark and snap its way through the small entrance, and James mentally cursed. “Peter! Come on!”

James was fishing for his wand as he was shouting. No way that he could get out through the trap door, Severus was bleeding badly, Remus had his scent and had it good. Sirius was the one who had his wand first (which James supposed made sense, after all, Sirius his tend to use it to keep his hair back) and tapped the handle with its tip with a soft mutter of “ _Alohomora_.” 

James went to shoulder the door just to find out too late that the door wouldn’t be opening. “Fuck!”

Remus finally pulled his head out from the trap door, and his eyes fixed back on James. In a split moment decision, James let go of Sirius so that he could transform back into his stag form, stomping his hoof in warning. He’s gored Remus once tonight; he wasn’t afraid to do it again.

From the corner of his eye, he could see a rat skittering across the floor and down the trap door. Okay, that was two down, it was just him and Sirius.

“…Just go, Prongs,” Sirius told him from where he kept propped against the wall. “I’m right behind you.”

“The bloody hell you are,” James quipped. “I’m not leaving you here.”

Remus was crouched over on all fours, beginning to circle the two of them. James tensed up, ready to run or fight, he wasn’t sure which quite yet, mostly because Sirius was looking like he could keel over at any moment.

After a few moments, Remus seemed to relax again as the smell of human was overridden, and James gently nudged Sirius with his muzzle to tell him that he needed to go. Sirius stumbled, then glanced over at the werewolf, and he took a few steps, making sure to apply pressure to his neck.

“It’s fine, Moony,” Sirius promised. “This is my mess and I can accept the consequences for it.”

James nudged him again, and Sirius took a few more steps before his knees buckled beneath him. James mentally cussed, watching Sirius drop like a sack of potatoes and then Moony leaping forward to inspect, twisted hands pinning Sirius into place again.

What was going through his head, James wondered. Was he going to just give their friend a killing blow? At this point, that would be the most merciful thing that Remus had done all night to the lot of them, but Sirius still had a chance. If there was a chance of it, James was going to try to make sure that this ended in Sirius’ favor.

Remus was back to licking at the wound he inflicted, and James gently nudged the werewolf a fraction of an inch away. He didn’t have time to play tonight, he needed to get Sirius to the hospital wing and call it a night. What a night it was, too. He was never going to let Sirius live this down for as long as they were both breathing.

Remus kept his grip on the leather coat for a few more forceful nudges before James took Sirius’ collar into his mouth and dragged him closer to the trap door, finally turning back into his human form to drag him out at the last minute and closing the trap door behind him.

And then there were two in the tunnel, but Sirius was deathly still. His ponytail seemed to have gathered enough dust to grey sections of it, and James already knew that they wouldn’t be able to hide the truth from Madame Pomfrey. If it weren’t for the fact that he could still see the sharp, shallow breathing, James would be sure that this was the end of the line.

“Talk to me,” James told him, hoisting Sirius to his shoulder again. “I don’t care what it’s about, just say something.”

“This was…probably not my best plan,” Sirius said after a few steps.

“You think?” James chastised. “What were you thinking, doing this at all?”

“I thought it would be _funny_ ,” Sirius countered listlessly. “It was supposed to be.”

“I’m sure when he transforms back Moony’s going to find _real_ funny that he bit somebody and Severus saw it.”

“Just meant to scare ‘im,” Sirius told him. “Never meant to hurt Moony in the process.”

“A little late for that one, mate.”

“Well,” Sirius said, “it could have gone worse.”

“Absolutely fucking _not_.”

“Think about it, I already turn into a dog once a month, Remus thinks of us as his pack already, and I guess I’m getting kicked out for good when the hag discovers that the pure blood she’s so proud of is no longer running through my veins.” Sirius chuckled, breathless. “Last laugh is mine either way.”

“If it keeps you holding on to use that to spite your family, Sirius, spite away, but what does it say about you that you’re thinking of what they will think of you at the end of all this?”

Sirius didn’t say anything for a while, and James could feel every muscle in his body tense in response, then relax again as Sirius found his voice again.  
“Look out for Reg for me if it comes down to it.”

“…Not a problem, Padfoot,” James promised. “That’s not a problem at all.”

“He’s not like the rest of their lot, Regulus. Just easier to persuade than I am I guess.”

“I know, Sirius,” James said, starting the ascent to the bottom of the Whomping Willow. “You don’t have to convince me of it.”

Sirius turned his head, gently bumping James’ jawline. “I don’t think I’m up for Quidditch practice tomorrow, think you’ll do fine without me?”

“Once I find a good excuse, sure.” James smiled a little. At least Sirius was keeping his spirits up. It was hard to believe that Remus would ever do this to one of them. Any of them. Perhaps there was something to the great debate about if a werewolf still counted as human in the first place.

James could think of that later, however, because now it was time to begin the walk of shame back to the castle and hope against hope that he could get Sirius to the hospital wing without running into anybody in the process.

Sirius usually felt so much warmer than this. James paused to shrug his robe off and help throw Sirius into it in hopes that this might help the situation even a little bit, taking note that his best friend’s lips had already gone blue during this hike, but he did not bother stopping at any other point on his way to the hospital wing. He took the main entrance, not about to try to push Sirius into any further ups and downs for this journey. Fuck the House Cup, Gryffindor never won; they could afford to lose a few more points along the way.

By time James got the door open, he noticed that Sirius’ eyes had slid shut somewhere along the way, and Madame Pomfrey whisked him off before he could even say another word to him.

For the first time in years, James did not think that Sirius was funny.


	2. The Hospital Wing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James tries to avoid questions all night, dawn arrives, and Remus confronts him.

James spent most of the night sticking to his story – that he had no idea what happened. He had just been hanging out in the Common Room when his best friend returned looking as pale as a ghost and bleeding badly. Madame Pomfrey and McGonagall questioned him up, down, and sideways about it, but James had been far too adamant to let anything further out.

In truth, he was still trying to piece together what had happened earlier, the shock deep in his bones and amplified by his fear that he was going to lose Sirius forever just because he wanted another go at Snape before they called it quits for good, and the man who struck that fatal blow was none other than another Marauder.

It hurt to think about too much. What was he going to do if this war broke out and he had to deal with this on a far more consistent basis? If there was ever a day to skip classes, James concluded that this was going to be the day. Without thinking too much about it, he put out the notice that practice was canceled for the afternoon and returned to the hospital wing, ducking behind the curtain that had been set up to hide Sirius from plain view.

He was so transfixed on the now steady rise and fall of Sirius’ chest that he didn’t notice the curtain move, nor did he hear the footsteps beside him. The first sign that he wasn’t alone right now had been the hand on his shoulder, which jerked him back to reality.

“I don’t suppose that you know more about what happened than you are letting on.”

Dumbledore’s voice was calm and even, and it felt like a wave crashing among the rocks that made up the shoreline of James’ chaotic mind. The old headmaster could very well know what he was doing, that James would respond so much better to the calm than he would to the chaos surrounding him.

“If I were to hazard a guess,” Dumbledore continued, joining James in watching Sirius breathe, “I’d say that I’ve seen that type of wound before, albeit only once or twice.”

James tried not to say anything further. Honestly, he was feeling a bit like he was being baited into giving information. Remus had never lied to them about who else exactly knew his furry little secret, and that list included the kind-hearted wizard that they all admired dearly. Still, Dumbledore wasn’t pressing the matter, and that was more than enough to get James to try to appeal to him, just in case Dumbledore was feeling the same doubts in his heart that James was feeling.

“Professor Dumbledore, it was just an accident,” James insisted. “Don’t punish him, you know that he’d never…”

“Which was the purpose of the Shrieking Shack to begin with,” Dumbledore told him. “Even someone so gentle can be dangerous if the circumstances are just right. Perhaps this is one of the hardest lessons that you will have to learn. It’s something we all struggle with grasping at one point or another.”

James didn’t say much more after that. It already felt like he was betraying the trust of the others just off what he managed to divulge already. Thankfully, Dumbledore was still there, offering a second presence, when the curtain moved again.

Dawn must have already come while James had not been looking, because the first things he noticed when the curtain moved were shaky hands and a pale face.

James was immediately on his feet, pushing Remus out of the curtain and away from Sirius and Dumbledore.

“Remus –”

“Who is in there?” Remus told him. “James, please, who’s hurt?”

“Bring him in, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore told him. “It will be easier for everybody if he finds out now.”

James hesitated, hands still on Remus’ shoulders. He was never going to forgive himself. That much, he knew, and out of all the things that could have happened the night before, somehow he was certain that this was going to be the thing that took all of the progress Remus had made over the past five years and throw it all away.

Still, James dropped his hands and stepped aside to let Remus past him. He stayed behind him in case he tried to flee, but he could feel his heart breaking for Remus as he watched his body still, then stiffen, a hand rising to his face. For a moment, James was so relieved that he didn’t have to see Remus’ full reaction. He could picture it in his head just fine.

Remus took a step back, running into James’ torso in the process, and James pushed him back in, closing the curtain behind him.

“It’s not your fault, Remus,” James told him.

Remus’ eyes glanced over toward Dumbledore, as if to remind himself that the headmaster was still here. In fact, James was sure that was what that subtle motion was. Otherwise, he was certain that he would be on the receiving end of so much verbal abuse he could go join Snivellus in the boys’ bathroom and nobody would blame him for a second.

Of course, like any other finely tuned weapon, Remus’ tongue was double-edged and just as dangerous. Now James had to wait until Remus picked his blows disguised as very careful words that would not get him into trouble from the staff, but still leave James begging for the mercy that the werewolf has not shown since the full moon rose last night.

“I don’t suppose that means there are others here with my condition then,” Remus finally countered. “Aside from Sirius now, I mean.”

“Sirius isn’t even upset at you,” James pointed out. “He’s not. He made it perfectly clear that he’s okay with this.”

“Oh, since he’s okay with it I guess that it’s just fine and I should just go along with it.”

“Hey, just because you’re upset doesn’t mean that you get to shoot the messenger,” James pointed out, keeping a tight grip on Remus’ forearms to keep him from getting away. “Not for a single second did he blame you for any of this. Nobody is blaming you for any of it.”

“I think when you took that vote you may have excluded somebody rather important,” Remus told him. “Because if Sirius dies, there’s only one person we can blame for it.”

“Sirius is going to be fine,” James pointed out. “He stopped bleeding hours ago, he’s stitched up, he should be awake in a few hours and then he can come back to the dorms and we can figure out what to do from that moment.”

“’Fine’?” Remus repeated. “We can hardly call this ‘fine,’ James! Look at him!”

“I’ve been looking at him all night, Remus, I damn well know what he looks like by now. The point is that if you beat yourself up about this then Sirius will definitely not be fine, he’s going to need somebody who understands what he’s going through and if you choose to walk away and shut him out for his own defense you will be doing a lot more harm than you would be good.”

Remus stared at him for a few seconds, and James could practically see the gears turning behind them. He recognized that face as one he’s seen a million times before. There was something that Remus wanted to say, it was at the tip of his tongue, but something was preventing them from passing his lips. Whether it was Dumbledore, his pride, or James’ own perspective, there was something that wasn’t connecting.

“Say something, then,” James urged. “If there is some part of the picture that we’re missing, then you owe it to us to make us understand!”

Remus’ gears kept turning, then finally he broke his stare and stepped backwards, twisting his arms in a way to claim his body back from James.

“I don’t believe that I owe missing puzzle pieces to anybody but Sirius right now. Get back to the dorm and get ready for class.”

James almost felt the sting of betrayal in his heart, but Remus turned his eyes to look at him and the look on his face spoke volumes to any Marauder – it was Remus’ planning look. There was always a specific look in the eye when Remus was trying to make his next move, and the higher the risks, the more intense that it was, and the longer it would last before he announced what he felt needed to be done on his end. Knowing that this could be the end of the Marauders as they both knew it, James suspected that it was going to take a while for him to finally pass the information that James had wanted.

James gave him a knowing look in response. “…Okay, Remus. I’ll see you later.”

Back in the dorm was likely the best place to discuss these matters anyway. James could grab Peter, then Sirius could trail in when he was feeling better, and finally, Remus could make his move to join them and a much better plan could come into play.

That was exactly what they needed; James supposed. A plan. Plans were very much Moony’s area of expertise. It was going to be alright so long as he saw that he was already working on one. If he was working on a plan, then Remus would not be paying any of those self-loathing thoughts any mind and more than anything else, he would be trying to fix this mess alongside the three of them.

“A hundred percent.”

James gave him a short nod and felt the relief rush through his body as he stepped back and moved beyond the curtain. He wasn’t cutting them off at all, and that was the most important part for now.

“Mr. Lupin, before you go…” he heard Dumbledore say, but James decided that he was already risking enough by trying to tell Remus what to do earlier, how to feel over this entire, terrible accident.

As he opened the door to his dorm, Peter jumped to his feet and grabbed his arms. “You were in the hospital wing all night, what’s going on?”

James took a deep breath, still trying to process it. “Moony just found out, he needs a minute to process all that happened and then he’s going to get back to us when Sirius gets back to his feet about what our next step is going to end up.”

“Are you kidding?” Peter told him. “I already know what our next step needs to be.”

“Well, that’s a relief, because I haven’t a clue what we need to focus on.”

“I already started spreading the rumor that Sirius had fallen victim to a shapeshifter during a late night Quidditch practice when he thought it was the bludger, so nobody is going to think twice about teeth marks anywhere on his body.”

“Good thinking,” James told him, grabbing the books and scrolls already set up at one of the tables. “I guess that means that now we just have to make sure that the only person who knows to the contrary is not going to say anything.”

“You mean—”

“Absolutely.”

“Prongs, you told Lily that you’re going to back off him!”

“You weren’t there, Peter, but Lily is quite through with him in the first place,” James countered. “Besides, if we do this right, we won’t have to even worry about this getting back to Lily in the first place.” He gave his friend a pointed look. “Right. Peter?”

Peter threw his robe on and sighed softly. “I’m just saying that if it DOES get back to Lily then she is still going to be upset that you are going back on your word.”

“Cross that bridge when we come to it,” James replied. “Because I believe that when we explain the circumstances, she will understand better.”


	3. Trouble Brewing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OWLs are approaching, and the Marauders really need to focus on Potions. This would be so much easier if Lily wasn't partnered with Snivellus and Sirius and Remus' usual bantering wasn't being replaced with Remus going for throats.

Sirius was back on his feet by Potions, and James, for one, could not have been any happier. Okay, so a lot of that had been that this was a practical class, and James didn’t want to face Slughorn without his best friend at his side, but this also gave them plenty of time to catch him up on his cover story.

Severus was partnered with Lily, of course, and that pissed James off outright. If he was so certain that he didn’t need Lily’s help, why was he practically hiding behind her for the one class that he knew that the Marauders were unavoidable? What a sniveling coward.

Sirius took his seat at his friends’ table and offered a grin, throwing one arm on to the back of his chair. “So, what did I miss?”

“Most of your morning classes,” Remus countered without a second thought. “I think we need to talk when you’ve got a minute too.”

“There’s no need for that,” James told him. “We can catch him up once the lesson starts.”

Remus still had his planning expression on, but he at least made eye contact with Sirius, who tilted his head to the side in response. James watched Remus’ eyebrows both raise, giving his friend all the air of authority that one would expect a prefect to have. Sirius gave a matching expression, much more dignified despite his disheveled appearance, likely a skill that he had learned from years of dealing with the "Noble" and "Most Ancient" House of Black’s more stringent rules of etiquette.

“How important?” Sirius asked him finally. “We can take a wrong turn later and fall back.”

“I’d say moderate to vital,” Remus told him.

“Let’s fall back and get lost on the way to Charms then.”

“Nobody is going to believe we got lost in our fifth year,” Remus reminded him. “Think of something better.”

“You’re better at lying than I am though,” Sirius countered.

Remus fell silent at that, and Sirius closed his eyes and shook his head. “You know what I meant.”

“No, Sirius, I’m afraid I don’t, why don’t you explain it to me?”

James put his arm between the two of them. “Time out, you two, let’s fall back some and then we can work details out later.”

Peter nodded. “Let’s just cool it and get through this class, get Pads caught up, and then you guys can think of an excuse for why you’re going to be late for Charms, okay?”

This was going to be harder than James suspected. He could barely focus already, his head just kept snapping to look over to Lily and Severus throughout the demonstration, trusting that Remus was taking more careful notes than James could ever hope to take. Lily kept looking over to James, clearly trying to figure out what his problem was this time.  
James went to mouth at her that he didn’t want her anywhere near Severus, but he felt a sharp pinch on his other arm that made him almost make a noise. When he turned around, Sirius was staring him down.

“Just stop thinking about it,” Sirius whispered to him. “He’s messing with your head, what’s new about it?”

James exhaled through his nose, and then mouthed to Lily “we’ll talk later” before turning to check Remus’ scroll for what he was missing. There was a brief bit of panic on his face when he realized Remus only wrote down the ingredients and the order to put them in so far before he reminded himself that Remus was probably doing well just to show up the day after the full moon in the first place. He truly looked like death warmed over today, there was going to be no question when they told everybody that Remus had been sick these past few days.

James was careful to sit down across from Sirius again, cauldron already lit up and ready to go while he caught Remus and Sirius up on their current lie to cover up for the bite.  
“Are you kidding?” Sirius said with a laugh.

“So officially practice is canceled because we need to check the practice bludgers,” James summarized and for the first time today, he saw Remus crack a smile, even if it was behind his hand.

“You’re awful,” Sirius told him. “I will not be living that down for the rest of the year.”

“But it gets you off without a scratch from the other problems, doesn’t it?” James countered. “Now, the problem is there is somebody in this room that knows that isn’t what happened, and we need to convince him that this is the story that he needs to go with – for his best interest of course – but I can’t get to him if I can’t get past Lily.”

“So, we need to distract Lily so that you can go back on your word about leaving Severus alone,” Remus summarized.

“When you say it like that it sounds like I’m the bad guy here,” James pointed out.

“Well, you are,” Remus told him, not a drop of venom in his voice, even if he was waving belladonna in his hand. “If Lily finds out about it then you lose your chances at her, too.”  
“I’m not going to antagonize him. I’m just going to make him aware that he needs cover too and I swear that I will leave it at that.”

“Solemnly?” Remus asked.

“Solemnly,” James promised.

“Then I definitely know you’re going to antagonize him.”

“Well, it’s not like he doesn’t deserve it once in a while,” Sirius pointed out.

“Haven’t you done enough by telling him about the passage underneath the Whomping Willow?” Remus replied. “We told Lily that we’d all leave him alone, that we didn’t even last a week is embarrassing in all sorts of ways.”

Peter watched the back and forth for a minute, but then decided to join James in playing referee for the pair. “I can think of a reason to go talk to Lily, that should give you time to corner Severus and it will give us a reason to separate so that Remus and Sirius can talk about whatever it is that Remus wants to talk about.”

“Won’t that make her suspicious that something is going on, though?” Sirius asked.

“Not if I’m going to ask her to review what we just went over,” Peter countered. “Potions is one of Moony’s worst classes, after all, OWLs are coming up, what if I just want to review what she and Severus did, since it’s definitely their thing?”

James and Remus both made a face, James because he very simply didn’t want to hear about any “thing” that Lily and Severus might have or had, and Remus, no doubt, for being reminded that he has a worst subject to even begin with.

“Need I remind you that I’m your partner for my ‘worst class’?” Remus told Peter, tilting the mortar of crushed up belladonna into the cauldron. “And that even in my ‘worst class’ I have been carrying you all year?”

“Careful Moony,” Sirius told him. “I’m starting to think you’re just looking for a fight today.”

“I’m sure that you’ll understand it soon enough,” Remus dismissed. “I really wish you didn’t have to, but I’m sure you will.”

“I’ll just go to Hogsmeade tonight and stop by Honeydukes,” Sirius told him. “If there’s some specific chocolate you want, I’ll grab it if you just tell me.”

Remus glanced over for a second, then turned his attention back to the cauldron. “Just a few bars of Wizochoc should be good for me, thank you, Padfoot.”

“You’re welcome, Moony,” Sirius told him. “Now, what do we do after the belladonna?”

“I think…” Remus checked his notes. “That should be the Saint James Wort.”

James shook his head and looked over to Lily and Severus again, noticing they were working at a far faster pace than they were. Odds are, that wasn’t a good sign for their potions, at least.

It was Severus’ dark eyes that caught James’, and he took the opportunity to mouth out a sentence: _we need to talk after class_.

To his surprise, Severus gave him a short nod, eyes flicking toward the door. That was very likely a good sign. Or a horrible one. James wasn’t quite sure how to take that Severus was on the same page that he was on in the moment.

“Hey,” Sirius told him. “Antivenom first, handle Snivellus later.”

“He just agreed to talk to me,” James told him.

“So, no need for me to distract Lily?” Peter asked.

“Yes, distract Lily for me,” James added. “But I’m not going to have to push him into the bathroom and make a scene of it.”

“Well, that’s good I guess?” Peter said, his question punctuated by Remus shouting out in surprise as their cauldron boiled over, the purple smoke that had been growing above it turning black. Sirius’ and James’ cauldron soon followed suit, and Sirius jumped up as the hot potion hit his trousers, leaving a red-violet spatter all over them.

Slughorn sighed from his seat as snickers rose from the rest of the class. Lily looked up long enough to see what was going on, then gave James an exaggerated eyeroll when he looked over her way. Together, they shared a small smile, and James was suddenly in a much better mood.

After class, Peter cut Lily off at the door, asking what exactly happened to make their potion go wrong, and James ducked behind them to follow the greasy-haired Slytherin into the hallway. Severus looked over his shoulder, as if he really thought that James was going to back down from this conversation, and James made a wide-open gesture with his arms. Yes, Severus, he was here, no, you weren’t going to get away that easily.

He made a turn into the boys’ restroom, and James followed suit.

After they both looked around to make sure that they were alone, they turned their attention to each other.

“Peter told everybody that Sirius was attacked by a different monster.”

“I’m aware, Potter,” Severus told him. “I’m pretty sure he is the laughingstock of the Common Room by now.”

“I was in the Hospital Wing all night,” James told him. “I didn’t even see you once. Considering how mauled you had been before any of us intervened, I have to say I’m surprised to see you on your feet so soon.”

“Don’t be,” Severus replied. “I have a lot more tricks up my sleeve than you could ever fathom. Tell your pet werewolf he doesn’t have to worry about me.”

“He’s not a pet, he’s my friend,” James stated, voice far cooler than he was currently feeling. “Werewolves are people too. If he scratched you deep enough I’d be reconsidering your views on them if I were you.”

Severus rolled his eyes, moving to the sink to splash his face with water. “Also nothing I’m concerned over. Perhaps if you thought to take a few of the medicine courses, Black wouldn’t be in the state he’s in now.”

“What do you mean by that?” James asked.

“He was very obviously worse off than I was,” Severus told him. “It serves him right.”

James had more than enough of this. He didn’t exactly have time to be dancing around words with a boy who was clearly not wanting to give all the information that he had, nor did he have the patience to watch the very same asshole sticking to Lily at her skirt, as if he hadn’t had the nerve to call her a mudblood to her face so much as earlier in that very same year. So, instead, he pushed Severus away from the basin to slam him against the wall. There was no sound between the two of them, merely the sound of running water echoing against the wall.

“What. Do. Those. Courses. Have. To. Do. With. Sirius’. Condition. Snivellus.” He was careful to enunciate each and every word, because clearly Severus was far too slow to comprehend the question the first time he asked it.

“I’m not worried about turning into one of those things because I actually pay attention to class,” Severus told him, pushing James off balance so that he had to take a few steps back to prevent himself from falling. “If you took any of the first aid courses, you would have heard about something called a post-exposure prophylactic. It’s easy to make once you have access to the ingredients, which all I had to do was ask Slughorn to provide to me, tweak it with a bit of wolfsbane, and now nobody will be the wiser that your little friends tried to get me killed.”

“A post exposure what now?” James asked.

“Prophylactic. If you take it within seventy-two hours, you can prevent a variety of ailments before they take their course in your system.”

James breathed out, a grin starting to spread across his face, which got the Slytherin to lift an eyebrow at him.

“Great,” James told him. “You can make one for Sirius, Remus will feel better about the fact he attacked him, and the bickering will stop.”

Severus looked at James like he just sprouted another head. “Why in the world would I ever even think of entertaining the thought of helping Black after last night?”

“Why are you telling me this if it didn’t cross your mind already?” James replied.

“So you don’t think that I’m going to go crying to Lily in hopes of gaining her pity.”

“Give it up with Lily, I thought you didn’t need her help anymore.”

“I never needed her help in the first place,” Severus told him, heading toward the door.

“Wait,” James told him. “What if I let you keep talking to Lily for it?”

Like the lovesick fool that James knew that he was, Severus stopped in his tracks. Good, now that he had his attention, James continued.

“I don’t think you understand how awful Remus feels about what he’s done. He wasn’t in control of his actions, and now he’s done something that he can never take back to one of his only friends. Be mad at Sirius all you want, but your fight is not with Remus.”

Severus turned his head, but kept walking to the bathroom door, shooting back his cold response.

“Is that really what you think, Potter?”


	4. Skipping Charms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When they should be in Charms, three-quarters of the Marauders have better things to do.

James made his way back to the dormitory very shortly after, absolutely livid. What the hell was did Severus mean by that? With the way that Severus was acting, you would think that he was the victim in this situation.

If he had the abilities needed to make sure that he could get out of a scrap with a werewolf, didn’t he owe it to the person who actually got bit jumping in to help protect him to at least offer enough of that potion and prevent having a second werewolf on campus? Remus had spent the last five years trying to keep James and Sirius in line, he’s gone so far as to go to bat for Severus more than once over that same time. Sirius? Sirius hated him just as much as James did. All that this was going to do was get Sirius off his leash and make sure that Severus was going to end up ripped apart this time.

The silence from his door told him that it was fine to just open the door and come in, which is exactly what James ended up doing, taking several steps in before he noticed that there was a mini meeting on Remus’ bed, Remus having sat with his knees brought up to his chest and Sirius, with noticeably much cleaner trousers on, was giving him a look like he had just interrupted something that was not only serious, but pretty important.

“Did I miss anything?” James asked.

Remus lifted his wand and said something, but James couldn’t make it out until Sirius’ voice gained volume.

“Prongs, shouldn’t you be in Charms?”

James gave Sirius a sidelong stare, putting his potion supplies down slowly. “Yeah?” he said slowly. “Shouldn’t you?”

“I’m still sick,” Remus told him. “And Padfoot went through a dizzy spell when he stood up too quickly, so we’re skipping. What’s your excuse?”

James dropped on to the bed with an undignified grace. “Snivellus pissed me off work enough?”

“So the talk didn’t go as well as you expected it to,” Sirius told him.

“Well, to be fair, James, what exactly did you expect would happen?” Remus replied, uncurling himself and pinching the bridge of his nose, right between his bloodshot eyes.

“Honestly, I expected him to at least have some human decency?” James told the two.

“Great,” replied Remus. “So he’s going to tell anybody that will listen what truly happened.”

“I doubt it,” James told him. “Telling people the truth is just going to incriminate himself as well. I’ll tell you more when Wormtail gets here.”

Sirius and Remus gave each other a glance before Sirius stood up. “Actually, I’m on the way out to Hogsmeade. Wizochoc, right, Moony?”

“You don’t have to get me anything,” Remus told him. “I don’t want any anymore.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and reached into James’ trunk to grab the invisibility cloak inside. “I’ll keep that in mind. I guess I’ll see you later.”

“I guess you will,” Remus told him.

James lifted his eyebrow, watching Sirius disappear from sight, then watching Remus move toward the foot of his own bed. “Did I miss something?”

“No,” was the simultaneous answer, punctuated by the door opening and closing.

Remus fiddled with the buckle of his trunk, opening it just enough for Remus to get his fingers on the first book inside.

“What was that about then?” James asked.

“I hate to kick you out of your own room, James, but I think I need some time to myself.”

“Why? What’s wrong?”

Remus shook his head. “Just please go out to the Common Room, just for a little while, alright?”

“I’m not going anywhere until you talk to me, Remus. What’s bothering you?”

“What do you _think_ is bothering me, James? I asked you nicely twice, can you just go now?”

James shifted to sit across from Remus, not moving to get to the door at all. “If you want to talk about it, you know we’d listen, right?”

“James. _Get out_.”

“Fine,” he told him. “I’m going. I’ll be in the Common Room if you decide that you wanna come out and talk.”

“Thanks, Prongs.”

James sighed softly, going back through the door. Sirius pulled his hood down, giving James another look.

“What now?” James asked.

“Don’t believe anything he says right now, I don’t think he means a word of it,” Sirius said.

“What was that all about anyway?”

“Don’t worry about it. He’s just taking what happened last night to heart a little too much.”

James sighed softly. He didn’t blame Remus in the least for being upset, if he was honest. This situation seemed to have walked straight out of a nightmare. Whether it was Remus’ or James’ nightmare, he had no clue.

“What do you want from Honeydukes?” Sirius asked. “He’ll probably feel better after he gets some chocolate in his system, he’s skipped breakfast and all.”

“A chocolate frog would be nice,” James told him, “but Sirius, perhaps you can consider that this is a much bigger deal than you are acting like it is? Moony’s beside himself and it’s a little hard to blame him when you are standing there acting like you’ve been expecting it all this time.”

“It’s not a big deal though,” Sirius told him. “I mean…it is a big deal, but it’s not a big deal.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all and you know it.”

Sirius lifted the hood back up. “It does, but Moony’s wound too tightly for any of us to think about it right now. Back soon.”

James rolled his eyes. “Don’t get caught.”

The Common Room was bustling with life, but James found a spot in front of the fire and decided stare at it and let his mind go completely blank. There were very few tricks he’s picked up from his Divination courses, but at least he did learn that if he had something to stare at for a while, he could force his mind to relax a little bit and he could come back to something with a much fresher mind.

James stared at the flames licking the brick for a while, letting the time pass at its own rate. There was a major breakdown in communication somewhere among the Marauders, and the only conclusion that he could come to was that there was a lot more to werewolves than Remus was truly letting on. What was so terrible that Remus couldn’t tell his closest friends about in the five years that they had known each other?

If you observed his habits enough, Remus was quite the open book. It wasn’t a surprise that Remus was lashing out at them while his tension was ridiculously high, especially if he was frustrated that the person that he bit the night before was not giving the proper amount of weight to the action itself. Clearly, Remus felt that it was better to go it alone instead of dragging the rest of them into whatever he hadn’t talked to them about. Sirius was either downplaying the what had occurred and putting on the façade they all knew he was prone to hiding behind when he was truly stressed out, or he truly came to accept that this was a consequence of his own stupidity. It was hard to tell which, if he was honest.

Peter, however, James couldn’t figure out what was going through his head. Where did Peter even go after he finished distracting Lily earlier? Peter was never the most extroverted of the Marauders, it was no shock that he wasn’t speaking his mind, but it wasn’t like him to just vanish like this.

The cushions beside him sank a little bit and a pair of legs went over his lap. He couldn’t help the smile that came across his face and he tore his eyes away from the fire to focus on another beauty bathed in reds and golds.

“Why did you send Peter to ask me a million questions after Potions?” Lily asked.

“I didn’t send him to do a thing,” James said innocently, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “He probably just wanted to know what Remus missed in his notes that made all our Antivenoms fail.”

A ginger eyebrow rose, and James knew that he was caught just by the look on his face.

“We…didn’t put it all in fast enough, I imagine,” James told her. “I kept looking over to you and Snape because you were going at a much faster pace than we were.”

Lily crossed her arms, waiting for a much better answer, and honestly, James considered giving her the rundown here and now so that he could get it out of the way before they all got in over their heads in whatever was going on.

“I’m pretty sure that Sirius and Remus are fighting like a pair of dogs,” he settled on telling her. “Sirius is out and about by now and Remus kicked me out for a while. Where is Peter, anyway?”

“Charms, because he’s not skipping his classes over whatever is going on with you four,” Lily told him. “Unlike somebody here I know.”

“Sorry,” James said with a laugh.

“Don’t lie to me, I know you aren’t sorry.”

James gave her a short laugh. “By the way, I thought you were done with Snape.”

“I am,” Lily told him. “But we are still students at the same school, and we are going to have projects together nevertheless. Don’t tell me you were getting jealous.”

“Now why would I ever get jealous of him?” James retorted. “I mean, he shot his shot and he missed it with the most beautiful girl in the world. That is nothing to be jealous over, you know.”

Okay, so right now he was probably the only person in any situation that could possibly help Sirius and he was being a grade-A asshole to not help him out. Right now, James would give just about anything to go back in time and just stop this whole thing from happening, but that didn’t mean that there was anything about Severus that James would call himself jealous of.

James got the girl, but Severus was purposefully and maliciously taking out the Marauders by choosing inaction above anything and everything else. It didn’t matter that Peter was shying away from his friends because it was clear that he didn’t want to be in the middle, or that Sirius’ entire life was being uprooted, even if he wasn’t acting like anything was going to be any different, and it certainly didn’t matter that Remus was blaming himself for something he had no control over and pushing everybody away. No, it only mattered that he got his petty revenge over Lily.

Lily was great, of course, James could somewhat understand, but to put yourself in such a state that you are comparing calling her a mudblood with Lily right there when your problem was obviously with the pair who was holding you upside down to no longer being yourself and ending one of your closest friends’ life as anybody knew it was stretching it a little far for James’ taste.

“I think it’d be best if you cut him off cold turkey,” James told her. “All that trying to be his friend is going to do is make him think he has a chance to get back in your good graces.”

“Don’t think you can just replace my friends, James,” Lily told him. “He can still redeem himself if he can prove that he didn’t mean what he said, and I can’t know if he’s any different if I do not talk to him at all.”

“He certainly has a thing or two to say against one of your other friends,” James pointed out. “He had a lot to say against Remus in the bathroom today.”

“I knew it,” Lily told him. “Peter was just a distraction. James, you said that you would leave him alone!”

“Keep your voice down, everyone can hear you.” James looked around to confirm that everybody was still busy with whatever they were studying for before adding, “I had a good reason to go talk to him, but I can’t tell you here.”

“Try,” Lily told him.

“Okay,” James said, moving his eyes to stare at the ceiling. “Long story short, he followed us while we were out doing a midnight Quidditch practice and a few of us got hurt. I wanted to make sure that he was okay and if he had any idea what kind of shapeshifting creature it could have possibly been that attacked Sirius.”

“Ask Remus,” Lily said. “He’s the one who’s good at identifying magical creatures.”

“Remus was up and down all night to be sick, he didn’t come to watch,” James countered. “I’m your boyfriend now, why can’t you just believe me once?”

“Because I know you,” Lily replied with a sly smile. “Now, I’m starving. Let’s get some lunch, shall we?”

James took a breath. Lunch sounded amazing. It wouldn’t hurt to just get some real food into his stomach before Sirius got back with his stash of sweets.


	5. Up To No Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Marauders acknowledge they have a problem, and James thinks he has a solution.

With the exception of the usual suspects all gathered around the fireplace with their scrolls in hand and focused on their OWLs, the Gryffindor Common Room was rather empty. If they truly wanted to, they likely could have all met Sirius in there and had their meeting with very little issue. James, however, was pretty sure that they all wanted to go to bed as soon as possible, judging by the fact that Remus had dozed off, quill still in hand, surrounded by his open books and a variety of study guides that James could barely focus on the wording of. While he doubted that it was a surprise to anybody that Remus was going for passing as many OWLs as he could possibly make his mark on, it was just a level of overachievement that James simply could not relate to made even worse by the passing thought that this stress was going to be hard for Remus to overcome in time and that perhaps Severus was set on seeking his payback on Remus by robbing him of his future.

Suddenly, the door swung open to an empty hall, Sirius pulling off James’ invisibility cloak with one fluid motion, holding a bag. “Alright, salted caramel for Wormtail, a chocolate frog for Prongs, Wizochoc for Moo—” He looked over and laughed, gently poking Remus on the nose with the bar in his hand, watching Remus’ nose twitch and a hand try to swat at him.

The result had been James’ work, with a line of ink on both Remus’ cheek and Sirius’ wrist.

Really, both of them were so predictable some days. It was just a shame that Sirius had his sleeves rolled up.

Peter’s mouth twitched, not sure if he should be laughing at the way that Sirius was trying to wipe the ink off on his pantleg or if they should be quiet for the sake of the sleeping prefect. That situation was solved rather easily when Sirius gave up doing anything more than smearing the mess and gently shook Remus’ shoulder, carefully sitting among the mass of guides with the grace of a man who had been navigating this very same mess for the past five years of his life.

Remus carefully peeled back the foil of his prize and pulled off the first row of squares, popping one straight into his mouth.

“Alright,” James said. “I think it’s safe for us to assume last night didn’t go quite as we’d like, but I did talk to Severus after Potions about it.”

“Well, at least he’s willing to talk about it,” Peter pointed out, breaking off a piece of his brittle and popping it into his mouth to suck. “What did he say?”

“Something about Slytherin thinking that the story is hilarious,” James told them. “And he’s quite alright, Moony, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Remus gave a sleepy nod in response. “That’s good. One less thing to worry about at least.”

“Did any of you think about taking Magical Injuries and Healing in the least?” James asked. “That would have been second or third year I’d imagine.” Peter and Remus lifted their hands. “Did you guys hear anything about a post-exposure something or another by any chance?”

“I only took the first-levels,” Peter told him. “You know, enough to get by if one of us gets hurt one day, but nothing really in depth. What about you, Moony?”

“Medicine isn’t exactly an interest of mine, and besides, it’s potion-heavy.”

“Can we just let that go?” Peter quipped. “I’m sorry if I offended you, but you have to admit that you can’t be good at everything you take here.”

“I’m more insulted that you knew that coming in and still are using my notes and partnering with me in the first place without even trying to apply yourself to learning anything,” Remus pointed out. “If you truly think so lowly of me why don’t you just buddy up to Severus, Lily and James can share a cauldron, and I’ll take Sirius.”

“I bet you’d like that,” Peter replied.

James put up the signal for time out. “Guys, are we really going to be at each other’s throats for every damned reason that we can think of or are we going to try to get things back to normal before we all fall out and think the worst of each other?”

Sirius put up his hands. “Can we just let Prongs get to the point and sort this all out after he finishes his train of thought? What were you going to say?”

“As I was saying,” James continued, “Severus mentioned that it’s possible to tweak it so that it can handle lycanthropy, and he seemed pretty confident in the matter him getting it just right for himself. I was wondering if anybody knew what we’d need to make it work before we plan to get ourselves down to the Slytherin Common Room and raid it for his notes.”

“…James,” Remus said. “If there was such a thing, don’t you think my father would have at least tried to give it to me before?”

“I just said that Severus had to tweak it,” James repeated. “And when it comes to potions, he’s on a whole other level than us. I don’t put it above him coming up with it himself in the least, but I do know that if he did, he had to have reworked the potion somewhere in his books so that he could do it properly. If we’re lucky, he even made sure that even we could follow his instructions with little effort.”

“What makes you think that he even reworked the potions in his books?” Peter asked him.

“Because we’ve seen him do it,” Sirius replied. “All the time, his potions books are fantastic if you want to see how next level he is, he’s forever looking for new ways to improve his results.”

“Exactly,” James said, pointing at Sirius. “If we can just figure out which of his books the recipe is in, we can do the rest with no problem, but we have…” James checked the clock on the wall. “Less than forty-eight hours to get it into Sirius’ system if we want it to work at all.”

Sirius looked over to Remus, frowning slightly, and James followed his eyes. Remus was still cool and distant, his planning face still in place. It was as if he had tuned out this conversation and was currently mulling something over, at least until he realized what was currently on his lap.

“Remus,” Sirius told him, putting his hand over the Map, “I told you this afternoon, being a werewolf isn’t going to be the end of the world to me. Whatever happens, I’m fine with it, so you don’t have to jump into any plan that comes to our minds just to make this –”

Remus gently moved his hand. “And I told you that you don’t know a fucking thing about what it’s like, and if the opportunity arises you will never have to. This sounds like an opportunity to me.”

“I don’t know,” Peter said. “Maybe there is an easier way to get this done. Sirius, you can always ask Regulus to –”

“Out of the question,” Sirius said. “Prat would either refuse to help or he will very simply never get it to us in time for us to do a thing about it.”

“He’s your brother, and if you’re in trouble, you should be able to trust him to come help you,” Peter pointed out.

“Then you don’t know my family at all.”

James carefully moved over to the bed to get a better look at the Map, trying his best not to mess with Remus’ careful study set up. “So this one is Severus’ dormitory. What’s the most efficient route to get to it?”

“When I have an answer to that, I’ll be sure to let you know, but I’m going to guess that our usual route into the Slytherin Common Room should suffice just as well.”

“And do we know what the password was set for this week?” James asked.

“Not the slightest,” Sirius replied. “I can find out though.”

“Are we going tonight then?” Peter asked.

“I don’t see any better time in the future,” Remus said, “but I’m more than comfortable admitting that Divination is hands down my worst class.” He looked up to offer a shaky smile to Peter, a peace offering if James had ever seen one.

Peter smiled back, then moved to join the rest of the Marauders on Remus’ bed, not caring that the textbook for Care for Magical Creatures shifted under his weight.

“Should have figured, you hardly have the foresight for it.”

James reached down to Remus’ trunk to pull out the Stay Awake potions that he knew that his friend kept packed, handing one to each of them. At least, as far as any of them knew.

Remus had ended up nodding off again against Sirius’ shoulder after just a few sips of the sleeping draught, which Sirius took from his hands to put to the side. Without even communicating it, Sirius was not only on the same page, but the same paragraph that James was on.

A prefect might make things a little easier as they pulled this off, but if Remus was going to keep going at the pace that he seemed to have picked for himself, he wouldn’t be recovering before the next full moon. There was no reason to put Remus through all that extra stress.

“Looks like Moony is going to be sitting this one out,” James told the others.

“What did he want to talk to you about anyway, Padfoot?” Peter asked, looking over the Map carefully.

Sirius gave a half-shrug, so as to not disturb the sleeping wolf against his shoulder. “He just wanted to give me some forewarning about packs he thought might try to convince me to join them. Nothing super serious, just Moony being Moony. I told him I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself as long as I got the proper guidance anyway.”

“Oh, was that it?” Peter asked.

“Well, there was other stuff, but that’s all private werewolf matters.”

James flipped a part of the map to make sure that Filch wasn’t going to be in their way when they headed out. “I wasn’t aware there were private werewolf matters that need to be addressed.”

“He’s mostly just trying to convince me that there are all sorts of things I need to be considering if I do change. And apologizing over and over for this whole debacle.” Sirius shook his head a little bit, still focused on the movements of Mrs. Norris. “Slughorn’s office we should be considering hitting up on our way back, since we’ll be in the dungeons in the first place.”

“Not quite a point until we know exactly what it is that we are looking for in there,” James pointed out.

“Speak for yourself,” Sirius told him. “You guys can look for the book, but I’m going to make sure that we get better grades for the potion we flubbed up today.”

“…Sirius,” James asked after a moment, “do you want to go through with this plan at all?”

Sirius offered a half shrug. “It’ll be the perfect reason to just leave, and I need the excuse.”

Peter and James fell silent again, looking at each other. They’d be idiots if they truly thought that Sirius couldn’t make an excuse for just about anything, but it was still weird to hear him giving heavy consideration to put himself through a hell that he watched one of their best friends go through just for an excuse to leave his family for good.

“Let’s just get it,” James said. “That way if you change your mind, we’ll have what we need to help you out. There’s no harm in that, right?”

“I guess not.”


	6. Down in the Dungeons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Never let a Marauder do a Lily's job.

Regulus Black had always been a rather unassuming individual. He kept to himself at school, took his studies too seriously, and more importantly to the plan of the Marauders, he was only prone to breaking rules when he ended up accidentally staying far too long in the library.

Honestly, if you asked James, it would be far more believable that this was Moony’s brother and not Padfoot’s, but that was not the case in the least. At least this made him just about as predictable as the two of them, which was why James, Sirius, and Peter were all following him down to the dungeon, not making a single noise under James’ invisibility cloak as they followed him.

James was pretty sure they got caught a multitude of times, because Regulus would turn around and roll his eyes, but he never called out to them to let them know that he knew he was being followed. That was mostly because the less he knew, the less he could be considered an accomplice, according to Sirius at the beginning of their fourth year, but James liked to think that Regulus had just as much of a mischief streak in him as his older brother.

As he went through the wall, the three of them were right on his heels, and he swore that Peter must have stepped on the back of that perfectly polished shoe, but Regulus didn’t seem to notice and just kept walking. The three lingered near the fireplace, holding their breaths as much as they could before finally exhaling as Regulus headed toward his dormitory. Slytherins all seemed to be studying in their rooms, James suspected, because otherwise, their Common Room was completely empty. It made the jobs a little easier, of course, but in a lot of ways, it just made James suspicious that their prefects would just emerge from a corner and Slughorn would make sure that there was no doubt in McGonagall’s mind that they were up to no good.

Carefully, Sirius moved to open the Marauder’s Map to figure out where exactly they were going and silently pointed to a set of stairs, but Peter tapped his shoulder and pointed to a set of bookshelves, clearly used among students, judging by how many textbooks were there.

James rolled his eyes. It figured that Slytherins were so much better-than-thou that they didn’t have to fight with their textbooks just to get some sleep. Sirius gave Peter a quick nod, and just like that, a rat skittered across the floor to go check the bookshelves as James and Sirius made their way further down in the dungeons.

The question that remained on James’ mind is now that they got this far, how the hell do they check the room without Severus and any roommates that might join getting suspicious.

“Padfoot,” James whispered.

“What is it?”

“I don’t believe we thought this one through quite.”

“It’s what happens when we leave Moony out of the loop,” Sirius teased back. “Don’t worry, if we’re caught, let me do the talking.”

James gave him a short nod and kept moving toward the room that Severus was currently in. If they were careful enough, there was no reason for him to worry about getting caught. Without hesitation, he reached for the handle of the door and slowly opened it just enough for the pair of them to sneak in.

To nobody’s surprise, Severus was very much awake, his study guides and text books in a neat pile as he pored through them, and James didn’t say anything, but he did let out a string of cuss words in his head about a mile a minute. He didn’t even look remotely like he was getting ready for bed. Did he even sleep? Like, at all? It would explain SO much if the answer turned out to be no.

Sirius, however, was already looking around the piles of books, acting like Severus wasn’t even in there. The longer that they were in there, the more likely that Severus would notice that there was something going on around him. It didn’t take too long before James started to follow suit, but he was keeping a distinct eye on Severus as they moved to get better looks at the pile that he was working his way through.

Without missing a beat, or even looking up for that matter, Severus reached out blindly and pulled the cloak down in one swift motion.

“Don’t you two nitwits have anything better that you should be doing?”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Sirius told him. “We’re here for Regulus, not you.”

“Is that so?” Severus said, closing the thick tome of a book he had been working on with a resounding thud, finally turning to look at the two. “Here I thought that you’d be looking for something else.”

“Are you kidding?” Sirius told him. “Life’s too short to be focusing on stealing potion recipes from you, Snivellus, we’re here for my brother’s Rememberall.”

James turned his head to look at Sirius. Regulus had a Rememberall? _Interesting_. He was going to store that in the back of his mind for use later, when they didn’t have more important things to focus on. Such as stealing a potion recipe from Severus.

“Somehow I’m not surprised that you want to join Lupin in his current state,” Severus told him. “But if you think that I’m buying that for a minute, I’d be just as stupid as the lot of you.”

“At least he _has_ friends who want to be around him enough that he has the opportunity to bite them,” Sirius replied. “While we’re here, we might as well get a copy of that potion so that he can stop acting like it’s the end of the world.”

“That’s no way to ask for a favor,” Severus replied. “Besides, why should I help people who were so comfortable with wanting me dead last night in the first place?”

“If we wanted you dead, then we’d have let Remus tear you to pieces instead of running interference,” Sirius countered. “And trust, he absolutely is capable of it.”

“Potter over here already made it perfectly clear to me that you’ve only run interference because you don’t want the blood on Lupin’s hands in the first place.”

“I know at least three places to leave your body in the Forbidden Forest that would have made it look like the centaurs got to you, and that’s not counting feeding you to the squid,” Sirius told him. “Remus would have never been the wiser what happened to you if we wanted you dead.”

“Okay, Sirius, can we not?” James cut him off. “Severus, we didn’t want you dead, that much is true. I’m not sure about the rest of that statement, however. But if you give us those notes and let us copy it, you can call it even for us saving you last night, and I can go back to leaving you alone.”

“Somehow, I doubt that you ever intended to keep that promise to Lily,” Severus told him. “I don’t know why she even chose to entertain the idea of dating you in the first place.”

“Well,” James said, “for starters, I wouldn’t begin to dream of calling her a mudblood in front of everyone else. Your problem’s with us, not Lily, and I can’t imagine why she’s continuing to associate with you even today.” He took a deep breath, holding up his hand when he saw Severus open his mouth up to argue. “Look, whatever differences that we have, I’ll say it again, don’t you believe that this is a bit bigger than them? My problem with you is never going to trump Sirius’ humanity or Remus’ peace of mind. Besides, what would Lily say if she knew that you had the ability to help, but chose not to just because –”

Severus cut him off. “You have no place to talk about Lily.”

“I’m her boyfriend,” James pointed out. “And you are what? Her stalker?”

“Lily is a person, she is _not_ a pawn for you to be using just to have your way.”

“You know what, Snivellus?” Sirius said, leaning down to grab the invisibility cloak from the floor. “Never mind about the potion. We’ll figure it out on our own. Besides, I agree with you. Lily _is_ a person. A person who told you that she has no interest in bothering with you, but somehow decided to not cut you out completely, but a person nevertheless. James, let’s go.”

James ducked under the cloak, joining Sirius in his hasty escape, barely avoiding Severus slamming the door on to his leg.

“So what’s next?” James said. “If we come back empty-handed, we have nothing to go off of.”

Wordlessly, Sirius waved a book in James’ face with a small smile on his face.

“…Padfoot, when in the world did you find this?”

“He’s as bad as Moony, leaving his books out of order, it was practically at the top of his study pile. While you two decided that you were going to squabble over a bird, I went in and got the real prize.”

James joined in Sirius’ infectious smile, then slung an arm over his shoulder. “Let’s get Wormtail and get out of here, you madman.”

Sirius tucked the book under his arm and took the map from his robes, following it straight to the rat in question and lifting the cloak just enough for him to expose their feet. Peter climbed down the bookcase and slide under, transforming back to his human form. “I didn’t find it.”

“That’s alright,” James told him. “We did. Let’s get back to the dorms before Moony wakes up.”

Sirius held up a hand. “Not quite. We still have to go repair our grades on that last potion before we head on up, and while we’re at it, we might as well get the ingredients so that we can make it while we’re out of sight and out of mind.”

“I highly doubt that we’re ever out of mind,” Peter told him as the wall started to fall away for them to make their escape.

Once they were safely in Slughorn’s office, James took the cloak off the three, cracking open the book while Sirius went straight for the notes of the last lesson, searching for their class.

With an inward groan, he realized that the equations to level out the potion’s effects and take the new ingredient were damn near impossible to follow, written in the margins of the page with Severus’ quick hand. Even if they could get their hands on all the ingredients here, there was no telling how long it was going to take to make any of this work for what they are trying to resolve.

“Prongs, what’s wrong?” Peter asked. “Just tell me what we need and I’ll get it.”

“…Nothing’s wrong,” James lied. “I’ll explain it to you when we get back. Padfoot, how goes saving our grades?”

Sirius, trying not to laugh, held up the grading papers, with large text that read _I will know if you try to change your grade!_

“I can’t believe he thinks so lowly of us that he thinks we would cheat to pass his class,” Sirius told him. “I’m wounded, I truly am.”

“Well,” Peter said, grabbing what he assumed to be the whole of a wolfsbane flower, “there go your dreams of being an Auror.”

“Never say never, Wormtail!” Sirius said. “All I have to do is get into the NEWT Potions courses next year, and everything will be right on the money. Now, hand me that acetone, if he has this paper hexed then I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”

Peter, without missing a beat, tossed the vial of clear liquid to him, which he caught with the ease of most Quidditch players.

James just shook his head at his friends. At least things were back to normal now.


	7. Working Up An Appetite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remus Lupin has spent a good amount of time stressing about the situation, thinking and planning. Now, he knew exactly what his next move was going to be. First thing was first, though, because he's only had a square of chocolate to eat in the last day or so.

The confiscated book was placed among James’ own books by time Remus finally started to stir, left to be worked on in between classes. Realistically, they were all very aware of who it was that had the best chance to figure it out, and hopefully the rest had at least let him come out of everything with a fresh mind. Well, after he got around to eating. Judging by the fact that he had his plate piled with sausages and only a few sweet rolls, James felt that it was safe to say that his friend was on the mend from his monthly situation.

James took his usual place across from Remus, not surprised in the least that Remus didn’t take his nose out of his book to notice his presence, though he waited to speak until Peter managed to drag Sirius out of bed and into the Great Hall.

“That,” said Remus, punctuating the word with a flip of the page, “was absolutely uncalled for.”

“Was it though?” Peter asked. “I mean, you’re still in recovery.”

“That doesn’t mean you just get to drug me with my own supplies,” Remus told him. “I was saving that for a night we truly need it.”

“Well, you still have most of it,” Sirius pointed out. “It didn’t take much for you to be convinced to sleep.”

Remus took a bite out of his breakfast. “Are any of you going to tell me how it went or am I going to have to pry?”

“It went fine,” James assured him. “We can still get things done while you’re recovering.”

“I may have pissed off Snivellus some in the process though,” Sirius added.

“Once again, haven’t you done enough to the guy?”

“We got the book,” James pointed out. “Once we get it back to him this will all be over and done with.”

“I certainly hope so,” Remus told him. “Where is it? I’ll try to work on it in between classes.”

“Upstairs in my trunk,” James told him. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”

“Despite my failure yesterday, I think it’s safe to say that I can work equations just fine.”

“If you’re sure,” James told him. “Remember, we’re down to 35 hours. Do work quickly.”

Remus’ eyes flicked up somewhere beyond James and Peter’s shoulders and shut his book. “There’s Snape now. I’m going to go talk to him. Maybe there is an easier answer to all this than all this sneaking about.”

“Good luck,” James snorted. “He’s been fighting me at every turn on this.”

“That’s not true,” Remus reminded him. “He didn’t have to tell you he figured out how to make an antidote after all.”

“I’m pretty sure we call it boasting, Moony,” Sirius countered.

“Funny coming from you, Padfoot,” Remus told him, swinging his legs over the bench and heading straight for Severus’ direction after grabbing a sweet roll to go.

James sat in silence for a while, spreading jam over his muffin and refusing to look in the direction that Remus headed. To be honest, he didn’t want to think of what was going to happen if Severus ended up provoking the prefect into a rage. There were professors there, sure, but Moony could only take so much provocation before he chose to bite back, so to speak. Certainly, Severus had the good sense to remember that he should be perfectly afraid of their much smarter and calmer friend. What was the old saying again? Beware the nice ones, wasn’t it? Well, Moony certainly qualified as the nice one when it came to Severus.

Sirius, however, gave no such privacy to their friend, craning his neck in the best imitation of Lily’s sister so he could get a better view of what was going on.

“It’s just talking, Sirius,” Peter told him. “There’s no way that Remus’ll take a swing in front of everybody else.”

“Probably not,” Sirius granted, standing up as well. “But they are taking this outside.”

Peter blinked, turned around, and James followed suit just in time to see a shock of crimson and emerald disappear from the Great Hall. By time James had managed to get himself up, Sirius was already halfway across the hall proper.

“Peter, come on, he might need backup.”

“I…um..” Peter stammered. “I’ll just wait for the owls and see if anyone got mail.”

“PETER!”

“Oh, alright!” Peter wiggled his way to his feet and followed his friends to get through the crowd. “But if we miss anything important, that is on you!”

James managed to wade through the crowd, stealing a good morning kiss from Lily in the process, and looked around for any sign of the three that were ahead of him. Exactly how fast could two injured people and an exhausted werewolf move in the first place?

Don’t answer that, because he saw Sirius’ mussed ponytail and wrinkled robes at the main doors and there were way too many people to get to him easily. By time he managed to get to him, Peter had already caught up to him.

“What are we waiting for?” James panted.

Sirius pointed to the glowing red line across the threshold. “Gryffindors can’t pass until Remus dispels the thing. He’s purposely keeping us out of the loop.”

“Well,” Peter said, “Maybe it’s because he thinks that Severus will get on the defensive if we try to join them. He might have a point, too, given you two pissed him off last night. Let’s get back to the Great Hall, I’m starving already.”

James followed Sirius’ stare out to the lake, where Remus and Severus were currently standing, far out of their range of hearing. What in the world was he saying? Remus was purposefully keeping his back to the door, keeping his head in the way so that Peter couldn’t read either’s lips. This was definitely planned out to keep them out of whatever they are discussing.

“They seem awfully friendly, don’t they?” Sirius quipped.

“Is now really the time, Padfoot?” Peter pointed out. “You get more flies with honey sometimes.”

“I’ve tested that and it’s demonstrably false,” Sirius countered. “More flies to the vinegar. Every time.”

“You really do need a hobby.”

“I’d have a lot more hobbies if that old hag actually let me do what I want for a drastic change of pace. We can’t all be perfect little Regulus.”

Remus and Severus stood there for a while longer before Remus finally moved, turning swiftly on his heel with his wand up to his face, eyes closed. The position was rather unmistakable, and it very quickly killed any banter that the three on the other side of the line might have had going at that point.

What exactly was Remus thinking?

The two took their steps and Remus spun back around on his heels, far faster than Severus’ movements, but the first spell out was from Severus’ lips, not his own. Instead, Remus diffused it into a harmless foray of blue sparks and took a step back, managing to coax Severus into taking a few steps forward. There was another spell cast, but Remus managed to diffuse it again.

Why wasn’t he fighting back? James gave a quick glance at Sirius, who was once again on the same page as his best friend, already grabbing his wand, just to watch Remus’ free hand swing up as he stepped back again. He was telling them to stop, to stay out of this, and James could practically hear Sirius’ teeth clack together as he clenched his jaw, stuffing his wand away.

In a way, though? James had to admit it was quite interesting to watch. Remus and Severus were both very talented in their areas of study, after all, and watching them duel this way was almost as fascinating as watching professional dancers perform an elaborate piece. It was probably a bit morbid to think of it that way, but it very quickly became clear that this fight had no malice located on either end – if Severus wanted somebody to hurt, they were going to hurt, and Remus was too far into the defense to actually do much harm.

When Remus did get a spell in, he had aimed precisely at where Severus had not been thinking to protect – Severus’ legs locked into place and he found himself off balance, and while he was focused on that, the telltale white _crack_ of an Expelliarmus sent Severus backward with his wand flying, just barely missing disappearing into the brush.

Without much hesitation, though, Remus crossed the space, picking up the wand on his way to lean down to grab Severus’ wrist and pull him up, as he dispelled the locomotor mortis, he also dispelled his barrier, and the rest of the Marauders were able to run out to check Remus over.

“What the hell was that?” Sirius shouted at him, but Remus, a little burnt and dirty, just kept on smiling.

“Just some harmless fun. Right, Severus?”

“I’d hardly call it harmless in the long run,” Severus quipped. “But…necessary, nevertheless.”

“Remember to mind your legs next time,” Remus told him. “Form is important, but in real life, the goal is to get out alive, and I’m not sure if I’m the only man out here that is not above sneaking a first-year curse into a fight if I find it will be effective.”

“Hey, don’t give him tips for next time he’s in a fight,” James scolded.

The small crowd that had gathered dispersed, Gilderoy’s annoying voice pointing out that he could have ended it without a combination floating above the rest of the murmurs, and James turned around to see Slughorn and McGonagall standing by the doors, eyes on their respective students.

Remus sighed softly and went to go face the music.

Before James opened his mouth to argue with McGonagall that Severus had very clearly started it, she managed to beat him to the punch.

“Not a word out of you, Mr. Potter. Mr. Lupin, I know for a fact that you know better than to use magic outside of a classroom, much less get into a fight, what has gotten into you these past few days?”

“I’m terribly sorry about this, Professor,” Remus told her.

James tried not to laugh at that one at all. Mostly because Remus not only used magic outside of a classroom and has been raring for a fight for most of yesterday, but he certainly didn’t look sorry in the absolute least.

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to give you detention for this,” McGonagall told him. “I won’t revoke your status as a prefect this time, but I don’t want to catch you dueling again.”

“It won’t happen again; you have my word.”

“Good. I believe that Mr. Filch should look forward to having your help this evening, then, if you can behave yourself for the rest of the day.” She gave a pointed look at the three other Gryffindors. “And I’m sure he’d be thrilled with more help if you three can’t behave at all.”

“No promises,” Sirius told her.

“I’m going to pretend that wasn’t backtalk, Mr. Black.”

Severus seemed to already be finished with his lecture and waited for McGonagall to be through before approaching the Marauders. “And?”

“I’m cleaning with Filch, and you?”

If James didn’t know any better, he’d think that there was a small half-smile across Severus’ thin lips. “I’m polishing cauldrons.”

Remus smiled. “Good man. And an excellent duelist to top it off.”

Without hesitation, the two reached out to give a single shake of their hands before Severus turned to walk back to breakfast.

James turned his head to Remus, noticing a smile on his face as well. “And are we going to have to get detention as well?”

“I need Sirius to get detention, Peter, you can serve as well if you’d like but I understand if you want to focus on your OWLs. James, I need you to keep your nose out of it for a while if you can manage that much.”

James blinked. “Why me?”

“Because I need you to take Lily out of the castle tonight, obviously,” Remus told him.

“I mean,” James replied. “Not quite so obviously, but I’m not complaining.”

“Then shut your mouth and go ask Lily if there’s anything that she wants to go do tonight, I’ll work on the book, and Severus will make sure that we have the time tonight.”

“He’s going to what?” Sirius asked.

“It’s funny what a bit of honest communication and some tension relief can do, Pads. Perhaps you ought to try it sometime.”

“I like my way better,” Sirius told him with a grin that was instantly scrubbed off his face by a burning red envelope sitting harmlessly at his normal seat.

James gave a grin, plucking it into the air before Sirius could reach it. “Let’s see what old Walburga has to say this time.”

Peter and Remus immediately put their fingers in their ears and closed their eyes. It wasn’t like it was going to do much, of course, not with the letter already in James’ hand.

“ ** _SIRIUS BLACK THE THIRD_ –**“


	8. Reparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James was a Seeker. He ought to be much faster at catching up than he has been these days.

As the Marauders sat down for dinner, James decided to ask the question that he had been plaguing Remus with all day once more.

“So what exactly _is_ the plan since you and Severus are so damn chummy now?”

Remus rolled his eyes again, his goblet of pumpkin juice going down in one go before it refilled itself. “Don’t you trust me, Prongs?”

“I know you far too well to answer that question with any sort of analysis,” James teased him.

Remus reached into the bag he had been carrying and dropped the book in front of him. “Well, for one, Padfoot got the wrong copy. Congratulations, you two have been baited and wasted a good amount of time while successfully murdering any and all of Lily’s goodwill in this matter.”

The three offending members of the group just blinked at the fourth.

“I do talk to Lily you know, she has Severus’ notes and I need all the help I can get for one of the classes he’s famously good at,” Remus answered the silence. “And don’t give me that look, Wormtail, Lily wouldn’t have mentioned a word of it to me if you hadn’t opened your mouth in the first place.”

Peter looked like he’d just met a basilisk, but very quickly found his voice. “You can’t hold that against me, she forced the information out of me.”

James went to turn to his side to look over at Peter. “ _Why_ would you even _begin_ to tell Lily what is going on?!”

“Because her boyfriend refused to,” Remus told him. “And although I do appreciate you trying to cover for me, if you want this to get any further with Lily, you need to actually consider that there are some secrets none of us can hide from her forever.”

James sat for a few good seconds, skulking like a scolded child as Remus pushed the book across the table.

“Go give this back to him and apologize.”

“I’ll just put it back in with his things later.”

“Now, Prongs. Padfoot, go join him and apologize, too.”

“No thanks,” Sirius told him. “I think I’ve suffered enough public humiliation for the day, don’t you? Or need I remind you that Mother Superiority Complex decided to come into my room and found my posters?”

“There’s nothing wrong with your taste running a little different from the rest of your family,” Remus countered. “Just go do it before I have to deduct points for insubordination.”

“How many points are we talking?” James asked. “Need I remind you that this git has given just as much as he’s taken over the past few years and hates you as well?”

“Five for Sirius, eight for you just for not learning your lesson,” Remus told him. “It doesn’t matter if I like him or not, Prongs, the point is that because of you lot I could have taken two lives that night, and frankly, I think you two have been so focused on shutting Severus up that you didn’t once consider that if I had, Dumbledore would have no choice but to send me home for good and you wouldn’t even have your friend in the first place.”

“He wouldn’t do that,” James told him. “It wasn’t your fault, Moony, we all know that.”

“James, what do you _think_ he pulled me aside to talk about after you left the hospital wing?” Remus quipped. “If this doesn’t get resolved, we can no longer keep it under wraps what’s happened, and I am going to be going home on a _registry_. I have far too much skin in the game for your stupid pride to get in my way, and you,” he turned to Sirius, “might not think this is too great a deal, but one of those packs I told you about would be the _only_ place I have to go because I will _not_ be putting my father’s job in jeopardy by letting him continue to hide and fight my battles and if it ever comes to that I would truly never be able to forgive you for putting me in this position in the first place. I know your family does things differently, but in _my_ family, when we wrong somebody, we man up, apologize, and try to make things right. Mum included.”

James and Sirius fell silent again as Remus caught his breath, waiting for Peter’s turn to get absolutely reamed, but when Remus reached for his goblet to try to drain it again, it was pretty clear that that lecture was not coming. Instead, Peter just sat looking at usually collected member of their group, absolutely shellshocked from the admittedly hushed outburst.

“Well,” James started slowly, watching Remus shift his eyes in his direction with raised eyebrows, daring him to even put a single toe out of line, “that certainly explains why you’ve been out of sorts these days.”

“Well, that and it’s mid-March in the first place so I’m naturally going to be on edge,” Remus dismissed, not offering a bit more elaboration.

“Why didn’t you tell us what was going on in the first place?”

“I wonder,” Remus replied sarcastically. “Aside from it being clearly obvious these were the stakes from the beginning.” He took a deep breath and put his goblet down. “It’s fine, guys, it truly is, dueling with Severus helped a great deal with the tension alongside getting all of that off my chest.”

“Maybe we should start a dueling club, then,” James suggested. “I hear a great deal about Professor Flitwick that would make me believe that he’d love to supervise, and wouldn’t you love to put Gilderoy in his place someday?”

“As much as that appeals to me,” Remus said, his smile back on his face, which James could only imagine was his friend imagining wiping the smirk off the overconfident Ravenclaw, “I wasn’t joking, give Severus his book and go apologize before I have to do it for you.”

Sirius crossed his arms and sighed. “I think I’ll take the point deduction.”

“Given you’re the one who stole the wrong book in the first place, I don’t believe that you get a choice in it, Sirius,” Remus told him.

“Let’s just go,” said James, already gathering the book up. “The sooner we do this the sooner it’s over with.”

Sirius rolled his eyes and got up himself. “One uneventful meal, that’s all I ask for these days.”

James clapped a hand on to his back and guided them to the Slytherin table, book in his other hand. “This is truly awful.”

“Apologizing to Snivellus or what Moony’s going through?” Sirius asked. “I could do without both honestly.”

“I just wish he told us what was going on in the first place so that we could have solved this faster.”

“I somehow doubt that it could be solved any faster and that’s the hard part for me. I can’t imagine what next year would be like if we didn’t have him with us.”

“We’re not going to have to worry about that if you just put your spite aside and take this in the end, yeah?”

“Assuming that whatever he makes turns out to be the right thing and he doesn’t just poison me outright.”

James shut up when they got close enough to the Slytherin table that Regulus knitted his eyebrows together in a deep confusion, then tapped Severus’ shoulder and pointed behind him.

Severus turned to look, then had the good sense to stand up and meet them near the back.

“What do you two want now?” Severus asked.

“I didn’t know you hung out with Regulus,” Sirius snorted.

James elbowed him, but Severus answered it anyway.

“It shouldn’t. He’s very much your polar opposite, which makes him almost pleasant company. Not the best at Defense Against The Dark Arts, however, so that was what we were discussing.”

“Yeah, he’d rather a Dark Arts class I believe.”

“I think there would be some benefit to one as well, considering everything going on around us.”

James sighed, handing the book out between them before the pair could find any further grounds to argue on. “We…borrowed this.”

“I know, that’s my decoy,” Severus said, taking it back. “You aren’t the first person to try to steal my notes and you certainly won’t be the last.”

“I told you before, we’d do anything to help Remus, and it’s looking like you’re our last option.”

“Lupin already explained it to me,” Severus told him. “If it weren’t for the fact that Black put him in this spot in the first place, I’d consider you good friends to him.”

“So, you’ll help him out?”

“That was the agreement,” Severus admitted. “Lupin is just as much a victim of you idiots. I don’t believe in kicking dogs while they are already down. He’s going to sneak down to the dungeons tonight during detention and I was going to teach him how to brew it properly in case he needs it ever again, but of course, we needed some reason to be out after dinner in the first place.”

“Which explains the duel,” James said slowly. “Why does he need Lily out of the castle for that plan to work?”

“Because he’s much too good a friend to you,” Severus summarized. “Lily was thinking of breaking up with you yesterday. Lupin told her to give you another shot to prove yourself. If you bothered showing up to Herbology occasionally, you would have already known that. Aren’t you a Seeker, Potter? I’d expect you to be much faster at catching up.”

James sighed. “I do suppose that I’ve been keeping Lily out of the loop a good deal.”

“Let me be very clear,” Severus told him. “Lupin and I agree on the fact that after this, he is going to owe me quite a lot, and I find that this may be beneficial in the future, considering he has quite the mind. While I’d rather not waste this favor on you, Potter, I think that it’s safe to say that if I catch you lying to Lily ever again, I may change my mind. Should you break her heart, I won’t need a werewolf at my side to put you in your place.”

James blinked and looked at Sirius, who looked equally confused. If James didn’t know better, that sounded less like a thinly veiled threat and some sort of blessing.

“I don’t care that she is not with me,” Severus told them both. “That’s her choice to make, but I want her to be happy with her choices, no matter how poor I find them.”

“She didn’t make a wrong decision with me,” James promised. “I’d protect her with my dying breath and you need to know that now rather than later.”

Severus’ lips curled into what was unmistakable a half smile. “Then perhaps you shouldn’t try me so often. As romantic a thought that is, Potter, I would certainly count that as breaking her heart.” He glanced over to Sirius. “As for you…”

“Leave me out of this, I’ve _no_ interest in Lily,” Sirius said with a bit of a laugh.

“I think, after your Howler, should I decide that we need a proper peace offering, you should be introduced to _Sports Illustrated_. Order a three-month subscription over the summer and thank me later.”

Sirius tilted his head slightly, then looked at James. “What on Earth is he on about?”

“Don’t look at me,” James said. “What’s _Sports Illustrated_?”

“I just think after that Howler this morning,” Severus said, “he might find the June issue worth a read. You live in London, right? Just find a news stand if nothing else.”

As Severus made his way back to his seat, leaving the stunned pair of Gryffindors behind, he simply went back to teaching Regulus whatever wand movement he had been focused on showing him before, as if nothing had happened.

Wordlessly, they returned to their own table.


	9. Brewing Up Mischief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily was no better than James in a lot of ways, but then again, it was still better than Moony with a grudge.

“We aren’t going out tonight, are we?” James asked as soon as Lily emerged from the Girl’s Dorms.

Sure enough, the redhead was in jeans and her uniform shirt, tie off, and in her socks. Beautiful as ever, of course, but James had been around her long enough to know when she is wanting to look nice and when she wasn’t. It was a bit of a skill that came after long years of obsession, admittedly, but it was a skill that James took pride in, nevertheless.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down. “What do you think?”

“Mostly that this outfit would look a whole lot better if that shirt was mine.”

Lily rolled her eyes so dramatically that James suspected that Sirius, downstairs in detention, was getting the feeling he had competition for his crown of Most Dramatic Gryffindor, but he guessed that he understood.

“It’s not like you’ll be able to think of anything else while we’re out, so what’s the difference if we go keep our eye on them a little bit?” Lily pointed out. “Besides, I’m worried about Severus.”

“ _Why_?” James asked.

“Because we’ve left him alone with two creatures who bite and only one of them barks?” Lily pointed out. “A lot? In ways that make Severus feel further isolated and outcast?”

“Something tells me you’re not talking about Remus,” James concluded.

“A brilliant deduction.”

“Don’t make fun, Lily, Remus has done nothing but bark at me since he went on the mend.”

“Have you considered why?”

“We discussed that during breakfast, yes.”

“And what have we learned about sending Remus in when he’s not feeling like himself to torture people?”

“To be fair, it was hardly torture,” James told her.

“ _James_.”

“…” James sighed, almost exaggerated. “That Remus will regret absolutely everything no matter the victim and it isn’t fair in the least to him unless we discuss it with him while he’s of his right mind.”

“Close enough, I suppose,” Lily said, pulling him up off the sofa to redo his tie. “And what have we learned about Severus?”

“Quite a lot,” James told her. “Starting with he pals around Sirius’ brother and when he and Remus get along it’s quite terrifying.”

Lily dragged the knot up and pat his chest. “For you, perhaps. I know you think he’s awful, but Severus is quite smart, James. And very caring, just very much misguided.”

“Then why don’t you go out with him instead?” James retorted.

“Tell you what, let’s double date then, I’ll take Severus and you can take Sirius.”

“Lily Evans,” James told her, “if I were to take Sirius I would have absolutely _nothing_ to wear. I can’t have my date one-upping me in fashion at least. Besides, that’s my second cousin. I know the Blacks like to keep it in the family but honestly Lily.”

“I don’t know,” Lily said with a mischievous grin that brightened her face so much that James could feel his heart leaping from his chest. “There was a rumor going ‘round second year that Sirius quite fancied you.”

“I have no clue how that one started. You ought to know that my heart was already yours by then.”

“Hmm, a shame that it came at the cost of crushing poor Sirius’s,” she teased, walking back toward the entrance.

James reached under the cushion where he hid his cloak, powerwalking to catch up with his girlfriend. “But you do know that Sirius is straight, right?”

“Not as straight as you’d expect of the Black heir, but I suppose you’re half-right,” Lily told him, ducking under the fabric. “It doesn’t quite matter, James, it was a joke, perhaps you should learn to take one sometime.”

“I take jokes just fine,” James told her.

“I’m sure you didn’t find it funny when you stole Severus’s decoy book.”

James scoffed. That was absolutely _not_ funny by any stretch of the imagination, given the circumstances.

“So, what all did Peter tell you?”

“Never mind about that,” Lily said. “Remus was already kind enough to fill in the rest for me.”

James let out a noise of discontent about that. Traitors. He was surrounded by traitors. If this war truly broke out Moony and Wormtail were going to be the first on the list to rat him and Sirius out, he just knew it.

“Where’s that map that you four are always working on anyway?”

“Sirius has it, but we don’t need it tonight.”

The pair made their way downstairs, back to the entrance, where they stood on the master staircase for a while to watch Remus and Sirius working on the windows. By hand, at that, and there was nothing funnier than Sirius getting so frustrated over cleaning things without magic while Remus made quick work with his spray bottle and rag.

“Moony, a little help here!” Sirius told him. “How are you getting this done so much quicker?”

Remus offered a half shrug and went over to spray the pane that Sirius was making streaks over. “Poor Kreacher if you leave these streaks every time you clean.”

“Look I’m just surprised that Regulus didn’t find a way to sweet talk his mummy into letting him pack Kreacher and bring him to Hogwarts with us,” Sirius told him. “…what is in that anyway?”

“Just some diluted vinegar,” Remus told him. “Mum swears by it.”

Sirius shook his head. “I guess it’s Hope Lupin to the rescue tonight then.”

Lily tugged on James’ sleeve, gently coaxing him to come with her. He raised his eyebrows, but obeyed as Lily crept over to Sirius’ window, reached out while he was turned to speak to Remus, and dragged her hand right across the pane, stifling her laughter when Sirius turned back and saw it.

James bit his lip to keep from laughing himself, reaching out while Sirius scrubbed away at Lily’s prints to draw a heart over Sirius’ head.

“Oh are you fucking serious?!” Sirius shouted, reaching up to remove the offending print.

Remus just turned his head and lifted an eyebrow at him. “I think you ought to know the answer to that one yourself. You’re certainly mentally present enough.”

Sirius glanced over at him and threw his rag at Remus in response. “That pun was terrible and you should feel terrible.”

“I’m glad you’re finally seeing how ridiculous it is.”

“How long have you been waiting to use that one, smartarse?”

“About a year and a half,” Remus told him. “The opportunity doesn’t arise very often after all.”

Lily and James skittered off toward the dungeons in response, but not before James drew a smiley face and Lily wrote a simple “bye” beside it. It was a good thing that Lily left her shoes upstairs, because otherwise James was sure the pair would have heard them both make their getaway and Remus would have found out that they didn’t leave after dinner at all. Not that he could deduct points or anything from them while he was in detention, but knowing Remus, he’d find other ways to make James suffer.

Once they were in the Potions classroom, though, the first thing that James noticed was the only thing that he could possibly notice: it was almost pitch black in here, save for the light of Severus’ wand illuminating his severe features.

Lily lit her own wand and pulled the cloak off them both. “Surprise!”

Severus jumped a little, but quickly controlled himself. “Lily! What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be…anywhere else in fact.”

“Just here to offer you some company while you work on this remedy,” Lily told him. “Besides, someone other than you and Remus ought to know it. Just in case, you know?”

James gave a nod. “You could probably make bank if you sold this sort of thing, you know?”

“Money is the least of my concerns, Potter,” Severus replied, stirring his cauldron. “Ambition is defined with more than just your coin purse, you know.”

“Maybe so, but Lily thought you’d like someone running interference for you,” James told him. “And I agree, in part because Sirius might back out at the last minute with how he’s been lately.”

Severus scoffed in response. “You’re just now realizing that Black is flighty?”

“I think the term he prefers is ‘capricious,’ actually. But yes, he’s certainly a flight risk in a lot of situations.”

“Whatever word he chooses to use, somehow I think that Lupin won’t be allowing that to happen,” Severus replied. “The moon is still a gibbous, I’m sure he’s got enough strength to hold Black down so we can force feed him if we must.”

“You underestimate his willpower when it comes to spiting his parents,” James told him. “He could probably move a mountain if his mother told him he shouldn’t. Are you going to tell us why you’re doing it in the dark anyway?”

“Because the light will reduce its effects, obviously,” Severus said, tossing the last ingredient in and leaning back. “Did you think this was a personal preference? I can’t tell a thing like this, not everybody here is gifted with night vision.”

James thought a bit. “You know, it WOULD be nice if—”

“No James, you’re not asking Remus to bite you,” Lily cut him off.

“I’m just saying that it would help us out quite a bit navigating this place without any worry!” James made a wide armed gesture. “Merlin how can a woman who is so willing to mess with Sirius be no fun?”

“Sirius does deserve it, though.”

“Lupin has already decided his revenge on him at any rate,” Severus told her. “I find it satisfactory a response.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring,” James said.

“It’s far more harmless a prank than the ones Black cooks up at any rate.” Severus checked his cauldron again. “It’s not reducing fast enough, but it’s reducing nevertheless.”

“Did you start cold?” Lily suggested.

“Of course,” Severus said. “We won’t have all night to get it warmed up properly.”

James sighed softly. “Nerds, the lot of you.”

Remus and Sirius wandered down within the hour, closing the door behind them before Sirius glanced between Lily and James and threw his hands up. “I knew it, it was you.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Sirius,” Lily said. “We’ve been down here since Severus started. Right Severus?”

“Or shortly thereafter.”

James took advantage of the light reflecting off his glasses to roll his eyes. _Of course_ he would be covering for Lily. Why was this even a surprise anymore?

“Did you get it done?” Remus asked.

“I got the first one done, just waiting for the other to reduce some more.”

“So, we’re just killing time?” Sirius asked. “What do we want to do while we wait?”

“Bed, Wed, Behead?” James suggested.

“…what in the world is Bed, Wed, Behead?” Severus asked after a minute.

“Fuck, Marry, Kill,” Remus explained. “Sirius and James call it that because they wanted to take a stab at Henry VIII one night and it’s kind of stuck. Only in their version the other three players pick out one person, but there’s four of us so...traditional I guess?”

“…Alright,” Severus said. “Lupin. Potter, Pettigrew, Black.”

“Oh, this is well established,” Lupin told him. “Bed Potter because he’s a good bit of fun, wed Pettigrew because we could start a sweet shop together and it’d be brilliant, and behead Black because he’s most likely to not answer my letters – and before you ask, Potter’s answers are to bed Black, wed me, behead Pettigrew –”

Lily nudged James. “And you wonder why that rumor came about.”

“Well when you look at my options,” James countered, nudging her back. “Alright, Severus, Slughorn, McGonagall or Dumbledore?”

Severus thought a bit before he replied, “Wed McGonagall, she’s the only woman of course…bed Dumbledore if I must, I’m sure that he’s an ally I can use to get me far in academics if I were to take that direction, and that leaves Slughorn for the guillotine.”

“I got one for you, James,” Lily said, hopping on to the table. “Me, Alice, Marlene, go!”

“Wed you, naturally,” James said without hesitation, “and I suppose…oh I don’t want to behead either of them though…”

“Come on, James, you’re the one who suggested it!” Sirius declared.

The minutes went by quickly this way, and for the first time, it was as if the group were all friends, building each other up and cracking jokes at each other’s expenses. Feuds were temporarily forgotten, tips were exchanged for the ever-encroaching OWLs, and more importantly, before they parted ways, Sirius was given a pair of vials, one to drink immediately upon returning to the dorms, and the other a half an hour after that one.

When they returned to the dorms, Peter had his study guides out and was going over charms. “Everything go well then?”

James was grinning ear to ear, an arm slung on Sirius’ shoulders. “Here’s a mental picture for ya, Peter, Lily said she’d have Alice if Frank was involved.”

Peter glanced up at the ceiling and finally gave a nod. “Yep. I’d record it.”

Remus turned out the lights in response.

“Hey, I need those!”

“Padfoot, let me know when the first is down and I’ll remind you in half an hour to take the other, yeah?”

There was a few seconds and then finally Sirius gagged. “Okay, it’s down. Tastes godawful.”

“It has wolfsbane in it, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.” Remus flipped the lights back on. “I can’t imagine it will be any easier the second time.”

Peter turned to James, charms already forgotten. “What else did you guys discuss?”

“You know, the usual,” James told him, hopping on to his bed. “Severus would shag Dumbledore if he thought it’d get him ahead you know.”

“PLEASE provide context before you say things like that,” Remus chastised, taking the empty bottle from Sirius and making sure that Sirius wasn’t faking taking his medicine. “Breathe on me.”

“Not in front of the lads, mate,” Sirius teased, but huffed a breath of air so that Remus could smell it anyway.

“Good, you definitely took it.”

“Why in the world did you think I didn’t?” Sirius asked. “I’ve been emotionally blackmailed into it after all!”

“You say that as if I don’t know what’s best for you.”

“Is ANYONE going to offer context to what Prongs just said if it’s so important?” Peter asked. “Because I think I need some brain bleach after that.”

“Bed, Wed, Behead,” came the other Marauders’ simultaneous answer.

“Well I suppose that’s why Lily said that,” Peter mused.

“But what a picture,” James said wistfully.

“You weren’t invited you know,” Remus reminded him.

“I don’t need to be.”

Remus shook his head, clearly admitting that James was a hopeless case to himself before moving toward his bed. “In twenty-eight minutes, this nightmare is going to be over, finally.”

“Longest few days of your life, huh?” Sirius asked, moving to sit beside him.

“You’ve got no clue,” Remus said. “Next time I’ll just kill you and be done with it.”

“No next time,” James said. “Promised Lily on that one.”

“Best to keep it then,” Remus pointed out. “Alright, if Peter’s through, we should get some rest. Sirius, I’ll wake you in a little bit to take the rest of it.”

Peter waved his wand and the lights went out. James listened for the sign that Sirius had climbed up into his bed and silence was starting to fall a little before he spoke.

“Hey, Pads.”

“What?”

“Have you figured out if you and Moony are fucking yet?”

Sirius made a noise of aggravation before James felt a pillow whiz by his ear.

“…are you though?” Peter asked among James’ snickers.

“Even if we _were_ ,” Remus said before Sirius could get a word out, “I’m not one to kiss and tell. Use your head, Peter, wouldn’t you guys have seen evidence of it by now?”

“So defensive,” Peter teased into the dark, punctuated by the sound of something soft hitting the wall.

James dozed off in the dark, riding the positive emotions high.

Until he heard an unfamiliar scream. Then he put his glasses on in a hurry and got the lights up impulsively.

Remus poked his head out of his bunk to investigate and just cackled.

“It’s _not funny_ , Moony!” Regulus-in-Sirius’-boxers shouted, in a very un-Regulus-like way, at that.

“I don’t know how you got here,” Remus announced, trying to use his prefect voice while still containing his laughter. “But you certainly can’t be in the Gryffindor dorms! Back to the Slytherin dungeons with you! Shoo!”

“You can’t send me out there looking like this!”

Remus pulled him off his bed by the arm, pulling him to the door. “To hell I can’t, Black!”

James sighed softly, shaking his head. He knew Remus couldn't be trusted working with Severus.


End file.
